The first breakthrough of one of the two 12.45m diameter Herrenknecht EPBMs working on Brisbane’s 6.7km long Airport Link project has occurred deep underground at Wooloowin, marking the halfway point of the machine’s 2.5km journey to Lutwyche.

“Australia’s largest TBM, Rocksy, has already excavated over 1,200m of tunnel since she was launched at Kalinga Park in July,” announced Minister for Infrastructure and Planning Stirling Hinchliffe.

“Considering that this time last year pieces of the machine were being shipped to Brisbane from Germany, this shows great progress on the project.”

“Working around the clock, seven days a week, the TBMs have progressed at rates of up to 110m a week, digging the tunnels and lining them with concrete segments as they go,” Mr Hinchliffe said.

“Across the project, over 9km of tunnels have been completed, with the TBMs Rocksy and Sandy alone having excavated more than 2.2km.

“Over 300,000 cubic metres of spoil has been generated by the TBMs and transported to Nudgee Road via a 2km spoil conveyor, eliminating almost 40,000 spoil truck movements from local streets in Clayfield.

“This is a terrific outcome for locals and commuters using those roads.”...Thiess John Holland Project Director Gordon Ralph said the second TBM, Sandy, was expected to break through into the Kedron caverns next month, with both TBMs scheduled to complete their 2.5km journey by the middle of the year.

“Once tunnelling is complete the cutterheads for the massive TBMs will be buried underneath the tunnels they have created,” Mr Ralph said.

“The two TBMs were custom built for the Airport Link project and this solution will reduce the complexity involved in removing the cutterheads, while avoiding the need for additional surface work in the Lutwyche area.”

BrisConnections CEO Dr Ray Wilson said today’s breakthrough brought the team one step closer to the operation of Airport Link in mid-2012.

“More than 70% of the project is now complete and when Airport Link opens in mid-2012, it will be the first major motorway connecting Brisbane city with the airport and northern suburbs,” he said. ”It will improve travel times, providing six new lanes for drivers between Bowen Hills and Kedron and four new lanes between Kedron and Toombul.”

In Madrid, Spain, an underground highway tunnel will help reduce traffic congestion. Like moles, two massive tunnel boring machines have inched their way forward, leaving a walled tunnel behind. Gaskets from Trelleborg provide a waterproof seal between the massive tunnel ring segments....One of the many solutions in the project was a 3,650- meter highway tunnel that crosses the city center underground, less than 6.5 meters away from a busy subway line at certain points. Finished in mid-2007, the M30 “Bypass South-East” has three lanes in each tunnel and sidewalks on each side. At the time of its construction, the excavated dimensions of the tunnel, 15.2 meters in diameter, were the largest ever required. This demanded an entirely new breed and size of tunnel boring machine, also called a TBM or “a mole.”

“Two machines were used, one at each end of the tunnel. TBMs are usually custom-made for each individual tunnel project,” says Erwin Brakenhoff, Sales Director, Trelleborg Bakker in the Netherlands. “Costing in the millions of dollars, a TBM has the advantage over other methods in terms of safety and timing; in addition, it is extremely precise, which in turn, reduces the cost of lining the tunnel. This makes TBMs more suitable for use in built-up areas.”

Alfredo Avello, Director of Abyo, a supplier of tunneling equipment in Spain, calls the M30 tunnel project a team success. “This project was led by Madrid Municipality, and two joint ventures formed by leading Spanish contractors excavated the tunnels. In addition, other highly qualified Spanish contractors executed very important complementary surface works,” says Avello. “It has also been a pleasure to work with Trelleborg, which supplied gaskets for sealing the segments in both tunnels.”

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Hardened Structures of America is a Professional Construction Program Management Company, partners of Hardened Structures and Hardened Shelters, LLC, specializing in the confidential planning, design and covert construction of fortified homes, bomb shelters, underground shelters, homes with underground bunkers, survival shelters, 2012 Shelters, bunkers and hardened military facilities. These facilities are designed for sustainability with independent sources of power and water and incorporate numerous defensive and offensive capabilities. They can serve as a primary dwelling, vacation home, corporate retreat, long term shelter or expanded multi-function compound. Client confidentiality and total project secrecy are paramount on all of our projects.

Hardened Structures of America can provide all designs, planning, estimating, engineering, modeling, construction and technical support to offer complete turn-key survival facility solutions for private/residential, commercial, military and special projects. Hardened Structures can also provide all of the specialized equipment necessary for underground bunker construction, CBRE air filtering systems, blast doors, blast valves, water generators, etc.

The Cold War Museum (exhibition complex Bunker-42) is a military historical museum and an entertaining complex founded in the former classified military object of the USSR – Alternate Command Center of Long-Range Aviation (GO-42). The territory of the museum represents an underground bunker with an area 7000 m2 located 60 m deep near Taganskaya metro station. The museum has been working since 2006 after Bunker-42 was bought from “Rosimuschestvo” at the auction by “Novik Service” company.

In the 1960s the object was equipped with everything necessary in the case of nuclear attack. Later, in the middle of the 70s, there was made up a decision about its reconstruction. In 1995 the object was totally declassified. In 2006 “Novik-Service” purchased the object for 2,166,700 USD and started its restoration. Only massive armoured doors and steel sheathing of the walls remind about the former classified object.

In 2006, the secret signal office centre, located at a depth of 60 meters and has an area 7000 square meters has been sold to a private company. Now Soviet history is open to visitors.

The Red Bull company has spent today in the bunker selection round of the World championship of football freestyle.

...video's

Top secret bunker «Tagansky»

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Lake Mead -- Las Vegas' primary water supply -- has been drawing down like a leaky tub over the past decade, thanks to prolonged drought in the Colorado River Basin. The reservoir's now at 43 percent of capacity and about 100 feet below full -- just 45 feet above one of two main water intakes. If projections pan out, the water level could drop below that intake's pumping system by 2013. So the Southern Nevada Water Authority plans to spend the next three years and a total of $610 million digging under and up through the reservoir's bottom with a custom tunnel boring machine to build a new water intake, 190 feet below the one that must be replaced, and connect it to the existing water system.

Las Vegas is digging a 1,500 foot long tunnel, 600 feet below ground through bedrock to suck water from Lake Mead, in case the lake level drops too low for the existing intake to draw water. "Intake No. 3 will maintain SNWA's ability to draw upon Colorado River water at lake elevations as low as 1,000 feet above sea level, assuring system capacity if lake levels fell low enough to put Intake No. 1 out of service." [right, Intake 3 tunnel. Credit, SNWA]

The starter tunnel is complete, ready for the boring machine to be lowered into it for assembly. An earlier starter tunnel was abandoned after it hit a fault zone and unstable rock. SNWA has a short video explaining the project.

The machine works like a giant mechanical earthworm, gnawing through dirt, rock and muck while forming a protective tunnel that will eventually channel raw Colorado River water onto nearby treatment plants before the water is pumped to homes and businesses throughout the Las Vegas valley.

The 1,800-ton, 600-ft-long TBM is the workhorse of a $526.6-million third raw-water intake tunnel project at Lake Mead, 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas. A joint venture of S.A. Healy Co., Lombard, Ill., and Impreglio S.p.A., Sesto San Giovanni, Italy, known as Vegas Tunnel Constructors (VTC) LLC, is the design-build contractor. The additional intake is needed because the lake has dipped 100 feet since 2000 amid a decade of drought and boom growth.

The TBM will carve out a three-mile-long, 20-ft-dia reinforced tunnel under Lake Mead that draws water at 860 feet. That depth is deeper than the other two intakes, which may soon become inoperable if water levels continue to fall. The drill head, which rotates in 16 different positions, is already underground. The five-piece TBM should be fully assembled by early December, with commissioning to follow.

It has been a long, hard road to reach this point.

Herrenknecht’s Schwanau factory in southern Germany took 17 months to design and manufacture the machine, which was shipped in five large pieces to California’s Long Beach Harbor and then transported to the jobsite outside of Boulder City, Nev., in 61 truckloads. The transportation feat took months of planning and coordination, mapping out the route and securing special heavy-haul permits.

In 2010, an intake starter tunnel flooded three times in six months, prompting the construction team to abandon its original alignment and drill in a drier direction, roughly 23° northeast from the problematic tunnel along a ½° uphill slope. The move increased project costs by 15% and pushed the completion date back two years, to 2014.

As it stands, the TBM is being lowered piecemeal down a 30-ft-dia, 600-ft-deep access tunnel using a head-frame-gantry system with dual 200-ton strand jacks. It took crews 32 hours to lower the 315-ton drill head.

"There was only three to four inches clearance on either side," explains Jim Nickerson, VTC deputy project manager.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

SHANGHAI, China, Sept. 19, 2008 -- Two Herrenknecht tunnel boring machines, the largest in the world with a diameter of 15.43 meters, successfully completed their crossing beneath the Yangtze River in Shanghai. On May 28 and September 5, 2008, the two Mixshields met their target shafts precisely on the Yangtze River island Changxiang -- far ahead of schedule. The 7,472 meter long tunnels connecting the Shanghai district of Pudong with Changxiang island have created efficient transport systems in only 20 months.

The Herrenknecht Mixshield S-318, one of the two largest tunnel boring machines (TBM) in the world with a diameter of 15.43 meters, reached its target shaft on the Yangtze river island Changxiang on September 5, 2008. But not only this giant showed a top performance, excavating an almost 7.5 kilometer long tunnel tube in highly water-bearing construction ground in only 20 months. A good three months before, on May 28, 2008, the identical Herrenknecht Mixshield S-317 reached its target shaft with great precision. Using the two high-tech giants from Schwanau, the shell of the two parallel running large diameter tunnels, which are scheduled to be opened for car and subway traffic for the 2010 World Exhibition, could be completed 10 and 12 months ahead of schedule respectively.

Shanghai, China

In May and September 2008 the two world largest tunnel drilling machines - two gentleman farmhand mix sign with 15.43 meters of diameters - locked the propulsion under Jangtse river successfully in Shanghai. After 20 months 7.5 kilometers of combined road and Metrotunnel were finished in the carcass. One year in former times than planned reached the giants their goal on the Fluss-Insel Changxing. Thus the chances stand well that the two parallel tunnel tubes can be transferred to traffic punctually to the world fair 2010 in Shanghai.

The largest Tunnel Boring Machines worldwide. Herrenknecht provided two 15.43 meter diameter Mixshields to excavate two 7.47 kilometer-long parallel tunnels, which cross beneath China’s largest river, the Yangtze. The Yangtze River is one of the country’s busiest waterways.

To avoid impediments to vessel traffic, mechanized tunnelling was preferred over an immersed tunnel or bridge construction in the very busy south channel of the Yangtze River. The twin tunnels are located at a depth of up to 65 meters in groundwater-bearing sand, clay and broken rock formations. The multi-functional tunnels will have two levels: the upper deck will be used as 3-lane road tunnel. The lower deck will serve as service and rescue tunnel. The longterm objective is to also use the lower deck for metro traffic by integrating the Shanghai Rail Transit Line 9.

Dongtan – the first planned eco-city.The world’s first eco-city is to be created in the middle of the Yangtze River delta. This pilot project for Chinese environmental policy will be realized on the island of Chongming off Shanghai in the coming years. The planned eco- city will be built according to the strictest environmental standards. Dongtan will have the most up-to-date environmentally-friendlytechnology. From waste recycling and water treatment – still far from standard in China to supplying heating and electricity from renewable energy sources. However, the planners are going a couple of steps further; they want to restrict car traffic to the periphery of the residential areas, which is why their transport planning is oriented towards pedestriansand cyclists. They plan to locate working and living close enough to each other to make energy-consuming commuter traffic unnecessary.

The residential blocks are planned with no more than 8 stories, including their greened rooftops. The ambitious plan of the British engineering studio Arup and the Shanghai Development Company SIIC is to complete the initial phase in time for the World Expo 2010.

Some 80,000 people from various social backgrounds are expected to live in Dongtan by the year

In early July 2011, the Russian operator company NCC (Nevskaya Concession Company) placed an order with Herrenknecht – the TBM manufacturer, based in Schwanau, Germany – for the construction of a Mixshield. The tunnel boring machine (TBM) for the Orlovski Tunnel will surpass all previous TBMs. With a diameter of 19.25 m, the tunnelling shield, designed to link both halves of the center of St. Petersburg under the River Neva, sets a new world record.

St. Petersburg, Russia / Schwanau, Germany, 17 August 2011. On the occasion of the contract signing for the world’s largest tunnel boring machine, entrepreneur Martin Herrenknecht recently met the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, in St. Petersburg. In a high-level business meeting, Mr. Putin wanted to find out at firsthand about the gigantic automobile tunnel project – an extremely challenging construction project under the River Neva, which will be carried out using the world’s biggest tunnel boring machine.

The contract for the manufacture of a 19.25 m diameter Mixshield, which smashes all previous diameter records, had previously been signed by the Russian operator company, NCC (Nevskaya Concession Company) and Herrenknecht AG. For Herrenknecht, this is the biggest single order in the company’s history and represents a huge technical challenge, which has been well prepared by extremely thorough, intensive preparatory engineering collaboration between the customer and the contractor.

Including the backup, the Herrenknecht Mixshield will be a total of 82 meters long. On its own, the tunnelling shield will weigh around 3,800 tons and deliver 8,400 kW drive power to the cutting wheel. The leap in diameter to 19.25 m will enable the machine to excavate 600 cubic meters of soil hourly. The excavation area is more than 50% larger than that for the largest TBM currently in operation in the world (see list of record holders below). A Mixshield is the quickest and safest solution for driving the around 1 km long tunnel bore under the Neva in the face of the high groundwater pressures. An extremely ambitious timetable has been set for implementation of the project. Tunnelling is set to begin in St. Petersburg in the spring of 2013, with the tunnel due to be taken into operation in 2016.

The aim of this new and world’s largest mechanically bored tunnel is to provide significant relief in the center of St. Petersburg and allow a continuous traffic flow in the city divided by the river.

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

A Race Against Time To Complete New Delhi's Newest Subway LineBy Sandeep Ravindran Posted 02.10.2010 at 11:23 am

A worker stands inside one of the Metro tunnels under construction in New Delhi, India, in preparation for the Commonwealth Games this October. To overcome the challenges of a tight three-and-a-half-year schedule and construction underneath a densely populated city, engineers used 14 tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) to dig the underground thoroughfare

With the city receiving its first batch of Tunnel Boring Machines that will be used to build the Metro Rail network's underground section, it is only a matter of time before massive subterranean holes begin to take shape beneath the surface....But much of the ‘pain' would be due to underground station construction. Tunnelling, on the other hand, would have little or no impact at the surface level. Chennai Metro Rail Limited Managing Director K.Rajaraman says that people will not even know that holes are being drilled beneath the surface.

Out of the 11 TBMs that would eventually be in operation, the first one would be launched from Washermenpet.

The tunnelling would be controlled by precision electronic systems. The cutting rotor (shield) of each TBM would also be supported by a 78 metre long trailing assembly, consisting of components that provide mechanical support and help remove the excavated material.

To put it simplistically, the TBM works similar to an earthworm with cycles of digging forward and dragging the rear end afterwards. A series of hydraulic systems push the TBM forward (excavating the soil), while the rear end of it is braced against the tunnel wall. When the TBM head has excavated to its maximum length, the ‘shield' and the rear end is pulled forward

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Deep geological radioactive waste disposal in other European Countries

While progress towards a solution for the long-term management of the United Kingdom’s radioactive waste has been progressing over the last 8 years, internationally some projects are now at an advanced stage.

In Europe, Finland is developing an underground characterisation facility at Olkiluoto, known as the ONKALO, which has now reached a depth of about 320m. If ONKALO confirms that the site meets all the safety case criteria for the development of a repository, a facility will be developed at the site with a planned commencement of disposal operations around 2020.

Sweden has evaluated two potential sites for the disposal of spent fuel, one near Forsmark and the other near Oskarshamn, and in June 2009 announced that their preferred site for the development of a repository was that at Forsmark. They also have constructed and operate the Äspö underground hard rock laboratory, near Oskarshamn, that is used for full scale in-situ testing of different technical solutions in a realistic repository environment and have operated an ILW disposal facility at Forsmark for 20 years.

Both Belgium and France have underground research laboratories and are close to deciding where their disposal facilities will be located. All of these countries have worked in partnership with the local communities and have a high level of support from them for their projects.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

A new exhibition about New York’s underground earth works reveals a quasi-mythological mirror image of the city

Workers are lowered into the Tunnel Boring Machine Launch Area, 26th Street and 11th Avenue, New York (2008

.... ‘The Future Beneath Us’, currently on show at the New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex, and at the Science, Business and Industry Library, speaks of a mirror city to New York, a benighted, unglamorous metropolis of dark shafts and damp thoroughfares in which air is hewn out of rock, rather than rock heaped into air. It paints this portrait quite accidentally while describing the eight massive subterranean construction projects currently taking place deep beneath the city’s surface.

The simultaneous creation of a thicket of tunnels, hubs and work plants has seemingly resulted in an alter-city being formed, a sunless empire hidden entirely from the view of most of the city’s denizens. Chief among the projects is the gargantuan Water Tunnel No. 3, one of the largest engineering projects in the world. It has a diameter of seven metres, stretches for almost 100 kilometres, and reaches depths beneath the city of over 250 metres, as deep as the Chrysler building is high. It is a work of monumental size and beauty, a gargantuan concrete tube laid down amidst a glistening backdrop of quartzofeldspathically-banded garnetiferous muscovite-biotite schist. The only shame is that it will never be seen. Its entombment is part of its creation. It is a true earth work.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Tunnel Boring Machine Arrives for Work on LA Sewer Project October 1, 2008

The City of LA announced a TBM has been delivered and is starting work on an underground tunnel as part of the Avenue 45 and Arroyo Drive Relief Sewer project.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Italian tunnelling specialist SELI has celebrated its 60th Anniversary by manufacturing a 400-ton, 6.18m diameter DSU TBM painted gold, for the Kishanganga tunnel project in India. The gilded machine was delivered to the main contractor HCC (Hindustan Construction Company) today during an official ceremony at the company’s factory in Aprilia. The DSU TBM will bore 700-1000m under the Himalayas, crossing critical geological conditions of localised poor and squeezing rock as well of fault zones. The TBM has been specially designed to cope with the ground conditions and improve them through extensive pre-treatment works....The company was founded by Mr. Carlo Grandori in 1950, and it was he who introduced mechanised TBM excavation technology to Italy in 1969 and, alongside Mr. Dick Robbins, designed and manufactured the first Double Shield TBM.

SELI claims to be the only company in the world that acts as TBM manufacturer and TBM tunnelling contractor, with experience of 800km of tunnels in over 100 projects all around the world.

The new SELI factory under completion in Aprilia (Rome) will boost the TBM production capacity from today’s 8 units per year to over 20 units, with boring diameters exceeding 15m diameter.

Down the rabbit hole, a tunnel boring machine comes alive By Benjamin Kabak

For the first time since the April 2007 groundbreaking, the MTA invited reporters and city officials underground to mark another Second Ave. Subway milestone. Today, at shortly after 10:30 a.m., MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder blasted an air horn that marked the start of the tunnel boring machine’s journey from 92nd St. to 63rd St. With two City Council members and a House representative along for the photo op, the MTA reaffirmed its commitment to Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway and stressed the December 2016 completion date.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

The Gotthard Base Tunnel now being drilled out beneath the Alps, the longest underground tunnel ever constructed, came one step closer to completion earlier this month when another two sections were connected.

Tunnel boring engineers broke through the last several feet of rock between Erstfeld and Amsteg near the northern end...

The main section of the Gotthard Base Tunnel is 34 miles long and connects northern and southern Europe, said AlpTransit Gotthard company in a prepared statement.

The world’s longest tunnel should become operational at the end of 2017,” the statement said.

The company says the tunnel is an environmental feat and will allow millions more tons of items to pass through the Alps by rail.

“Only by upgrading its railway infrastructure can Switzerland meet the rising demand for freight transportation and the increasing needs of customers,” the statement said.

High-speed trains moving at speeds of up to 155 mph will greatly shrink travel times between Zurich, Switzerland and Milan, Italy.

The tunnel is currently scheduled to open in 2017. It will be a total of about 95 miles long when completed.

http://www.vectorsite.net/g2007m08.html...Surprisingly, problems arise not because the rock is too hard but because it is, in places, too soft, like butter, complicating the digging and slowing it to a crawl. The problems have caused the price tag to almost double, and the tunnel is not expected to be finished before 2018.

* In related news, an article on BBC WORLD Online ("Africa & Europe Set For Tunnel Link" by Richard Hamilton) says the governments of Spain and Morocco are now in discussion towards plans to put a railway tunnel beneath the Straits of Gibraltar.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Richard J. Robbins, President and CEO of The Robbins Company from 1958 to 1993 is to receive the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Medal for Engineering. Dick is being honored for his career dedication to the development of tunnel boring machine technology and the application of TBMs for some of the largest and most challenging tunneling projects in history. Dick joins an illustrious list of previous recipients including, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Stephen Hawking, and Jane Goodall.

The 2009 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Engineering is presented to Richard Robbins for hisimagination and skill in developing a hard-rock tunnel boring machine and its associatedsystems, resulting in a safe, economical, and efficient method for constructing tunnels.

From man’s first invention of gun powder, explosives were used to blast through rock andground to make tunnels. This dangerous process, used to build new roads or mines, remainedlargely-unchanged until the 1950s when Dick Robbins helped bring an entirely different kind ofrock-cutter to the world’s attention – enabling for the first time such massive projects as digginga tunnel under the English Channel. Through the family tunnel drilling company, Robbinsproduced Tunnel Boring Machines [TBM] that could economically, efficiently, and safely borethrough not only hard rock, but also through changing terrain or terrain pressurized with water.While he had competitors, it was Robbins who provided the first truly viable TBMs, ushering inan era of rapid, cost-effective, and safe tunnel construction.

Robbins earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Michigan Technological University in1956. Just two years after he graduated, he took over the family’s tunneling company upon theuntimely death of his father. In addition to the difficulty of trying to keep the company running,Robbins focused on refining his father’s ideas for a new rock boring machine. He substitutedhard disks for the drill bits that kept breaking; he added hydraulic pistons to increase the pressureand help fragment the rock; he developed ways to remove the rock without having to stopdrilling; and he ultimately even added maintenance shops and crews’ quarters to the giantmachines. He gained a reputation in the drilling community for providing machines that couldtackle the most difficult projects, safely and inexpensively, and for being someone who couldconstantly dream up new improvements and then actually build them....

The international tunnelling community has lost one of its most innovative and productive personalities. Carlo Grandori, founder of Societa Esecuzione Lavori Idraulici (SELI), died on 17 September at the age of 91. I was privileged to attend the service in Rome where many of his friends and colleagues gathered to remember his life.

Carlo Grandori was a industrial engineer who specialised in hydroelectric construction and large dams. After World War ll, he concentrated on the tunnelling and underground aspects of this specialty and became known as an expert in traditional rock tunnelling. In the early 1960s he participated as a joint venture partner in machine tunnelling projects with his friend and TBM pioneer, Duri Prader, in Zurich, Switzerland.

I first met Carlo when he visited Seattle in 1967. He was planning a bid for the Orange-Fish project (T&TI, May 1969) in South Africa and was considering the possible application of a tunnelling machine. Although a machine was not chosen for this project, Carlo and his engineers continued to look for a machine tunnelling job they could sponsor.

After a complicated negotiation with ENEL, SELI was awarded the 4.5km Brasimone-Suviana Tunnel near Bologna, Italy, in about 1970. The rock in the 6.4m diameter tunnel was unstable and complicated and required immediate support. Carlo initiated the design of interspersing steel ribs with precast segments as close as possible to the front of the tunnelling machine. This started a trend in Europe of using precast segments in rock tunnels that would eventually extend to many other parts of the world. The unstable rock face led Carlo to suggest modifications to the cutterhead, which was the first attempt at rotary breasting or active support of the face while boring.

It was clear to Carlo Grandori that tunnel boring machines were in the early stages of development for bad rock conditions. In-the-tunnel modifications would be required to adapt the machines to the rock, as it became apparent how the rock was reacting to the tunnel opening being bored. This initiated a life long collaboration for me with Carlo and his team.

In 1972 I brought to Carlo the idea of a telescoping shield machine with grippers located in the aft shield so that segments could be set while the boring was in progress. Carlo was intrigued and immediately began to sketch improvements to the concept. He realised that driving a machine through the rock was only one element of a successful job. Erecting supports, advancing infrastructure services and hauling out the muck were equally important tasks. The activities supporting the machine advance provided great potential for improving the efficiency of machine tunnelling.

In 1972 SELI secured the Orichella and Timpagrande tunnels in Calabria, a 4km long, 4.3m diameter, complex of tunnels in partly decomposed granite. This was to be the first application of a double shield tunnelling machine.

Carlo Grandori spent many days in his tunnels watching the machines and their trailing equipment perform. He was an active innovator and as a result the SELI double shield jobs performed with better results than could be achieved by other contractors.After his son Remo had completed his engineering studies and military commitments he joined the SELI firm and gradually took on larger responsibilities in the machine and tunnel engineering work. Carlo shifted his concentration to unique designs of trailing or 'backup' equipment and segment installation.

Some years and many double shield machines later, SELI collaborated with Prader on the 7.5km long Langeten Relief Tunnel (1988-1991) in Switzerland where a double shield machine installed hexagonal segments for the first time. Carlo utilised this experience to design the backup system for the Yindaruqin Irrigation Project in China (T&TI, June 1991). This design proved to be a major step forward. The machine, operating in relatively favourable rock conditions, advanced 1,200m to 1,300m per month, while installing the hexagonal precast segmental lining. This job led to a long series of successful tunnel jobs in China.

Carlo remained active in the design of backup systems until quite recently. He designed a system for the Manabi project in Ecuador, which was only recently completed. The tunnel achieved an average advance of 64m per day.

Carlo's technical contributions and leadership in the field of tunnelling will be missed by the entire industry. However, he was quite successful as a mentor and teacher to many people who can carry forward his design concepts and creative problem solving in tunnelling.

Carlo's health had deteriorated in recent months, but he would recover to enjoy travel to the sea and beach walks with his family.

Son, Remo, continues leadership of the SELI company which is currently working on 16 TBM tunnel projects, from hard rock to large EPB TBMs, on five continents.

MARTIN HERRENKNECHT BECOMES THE FIRST EUROPEAN TO RECEIVE THE “MOLES AWARD” IN THE USA.

The renowned association of the US heavy construction industry, “The Moles”, has presented the Schwanau entrepreneur Dr. Martin Herrenknecht with the “Moles Award 2009”. This makes Martin Herrenknecht the first European and non-US citizen to be honored with this prize. “The Moles” award is highly regarded in the heavy construction industry in the US.

New York City, USA / Schwanau, Germany, February 4, 2009. Dr. Martin Herrenknecht was presented with the “Moles Award 2009” in New York on January 28, 2009, in the presence of some 2,000 decision-makers and representatives of the US heavy construction industry, as well as the Governor of New Jersey, Jon S. Corzine.

Martin Herrenknecht is the first person living in Europe to receive this award in the more than 70-year history of the Moles Association. In addition, the Schwanau entrepreneur was awarded honorary Moles membership. The Moles Association is the most important association of decision-makers and representatives of the US heavy construction industry on the country’s east coast. The former US President Herbert C. Hoover is also among those who have been honored with the Moles Award in the past

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Both Belgium and France have underground research laboratories and are close to deciding where their disposal facilities will be located. All of these countries have worked in partnership with the local communities and have a high level of support from them for their projects.

The underground laboratory HADES is the most important research infrastructure in Belgium for experimental research on the deep geological disposal of radioactive waste.

In 1980, the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, SCK•CEN, started the construction of the underground laboratory. HADES is situated in Boom clay at a depth of 224 meters and was extended in different phases: recently, the construction of a second access shaft (1997-1999) and the building of the connexion gallery (2001-2002) were completed

...The Boom clay formation

The underground laboratory HADES is situated in a Boom clay formation at a depth of about 224 meters. Within the Belgian research programme, the Boom clay is studied as a reference formation for the geological disposal of radioactive waste. However, the site where the future disposal facility will be built has not been chosen yet.

The Boom clay is found on the site in Mol at a depth between 161 and 264 meters. It reaches a total thickness of more than 100 meters. Safety assessments confirm that the Boom clay possesses good qualities, also thanks to its low hydraulic conductivity and good sorption properties regarding radioelements. Therefore, it is a potentially interesting host rock for the disposal of radioactive waste.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Networks of Underground Research Laboratories for International, Inter-disciplinary Innovations

Synopsis of WorkshopUnderground Research Laboratories (URLs) were initially developed in the 1970s in Sweden for thermal andhydrological responses to emplacements of spent nuclear materials. Over a dozen URLs have since been andestablished and planned worldwide for studying coupled thermal-hydrological-mechanical-chemical-biologicalprocesses.

Similar number of underground facilities has been developed for physics research, mostly at greatdepths along roadway tunnels and in mine levels. There are growing interests to use undergroundlaboratories for energy and environmental studies and with emphasis in multi-disciplinary andinter-disciplinary approaches.

This URL workshop will discuss if networking among underground laboratories can be further developed from state of knowledge gained from past experience, current status of operation, and evolving plans. The preliminary agenda and topics to be discussed are given in the following table.

It's one of the great questions of our age: What to do with nuclear waste?

It's challenging, not just because radioactive material is highly toxic, but because really engaging with the problem forces us to confront unimaginable timescales.

But in Finland they believe they have found a solution, with the world's first permanent nuclear-waste repository -- "Onkalo" -- a huge system of underground tunnels that is being hewn out of solid rock and must last at least 100,000 years.

"It is our law that we have to dispose of our nuclear waste within Finland's borders," Timo Seppala, from Posiva, the company constructing the site, told CNN.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

There was no mushroom cloud, but on December 10, 1967, a nuclear bomb exploded less than sixty miles from Farmington New Mexico. Today, all that remains at the site is a plaque warning against excavation and perhaps a trace of tritium in your milk.

The explosion was part of Operation Plowshare, a program conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to explore peaceful uses of atomic bombs. AEC scientists proposed using nuclear weapons as high-powered dynamite in a variety of "nuclear landscaping" projects. The most ambitious Plowshare proposal suggested setting off as many as 300 hydrogen bombs to blast a newer, larger canal across the Isthmus of Panama.

The goal of the Farmington blast, code-named Gasbuggy, was to see if a smaller underground nuclear explosion would stimulate the release of natural gas trapped in dense shale deposits. Gasbuggy called for a 29 kiloton warhead to be set off four thousand feet underground in an existing, low-productivity gas well. Participants in Project Gasbuggy included the AEC, the Bureau of Mines and the El Paso Natural Gas Company (EPNG). Ground zero was seven and a quarter miles south on Forest Road 537, south off State Highway 64, in the Carson National Forest.

...Nation-wide, it was hoped nuclear stimulation of gas wells might result in the recovery of as much as ten times the amount of natural gas as was then being recovered and help relieve the nation’s energy crisis.

The Gasbuggy blast created an underground cavern approximately 160 feet in diameter by 333 feet tall --imagine putting an oversized football field on a stick like a popsicle, pushing it 3800 feet down into solid rock, and twirling it. A few seconds after the explosion the molten glass-lined cavern collapsed, creating a chimney filled with rubble and debris. Geologists later estimated that fractures extended out from the cavern a few hundred feet in all directions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_PlowshareProject Plowshare was the overall United States term for the development of techniques to use nuclear explosives for peaceful construction purposes...Other proposals involved blasting underground caverns for water, natural gas, and petroleum storage. Serious consideration was also given to using these explosives for various mining operations. One proposal suggested using nuclear blasts to connect underground aquifers in Arizona. Another plan involved surface blasting on the western slope of California's Sacramento Valley for a water transport project

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

The person who wrote this message to us did so under their own name (which we have checked), and enclosed a number of photographs of them with the Prime Minister of Norway and (separately) with Benazir Bhutto. We are certain of their bona fides, but you will understand that we cannot reveal their real name or publish any photos without consent.The content of this message, if true, could hardly be more important....

All the sectors and arks are connected with tunnels and have railcars that can take you from one ark to the other. This is so that they can be in contact with each other. Only the large doors separate them so that the sectors are not compromised in any matter.

http://www.ngi.no/en/NGI worldwide - NGI is an internationally actor within our fields of expertise. Approximately 30 per cent of NGIs work is on projects outside Norway.

NGI Inc., NGI's daughter company in Houston, Texas, contributes to enhanced contact with the international oil and gas industry

Our services are applicable for almost all facets of civil engineering. Examples are foundations for buildings and large structures such as bridges, railways and road building, water supply and sewage systems, tunnels and rock caverns, coastal engineering and embankments and rockfill dams. We cover the whole planning process from feasibility and impact studies to detailed design and follow-up at the construction site.

State-of-the-artNGI did the foundation engineering for the new Oslo Opera and for the neighbouring immersed tunnel crossing in Bjørvika. The innovative tunnel was constructed by elements floated into position and lowered onto a pre-made channel on the seabed, and then assembled.

Our knowledge has been used to develop the Q-method - a tool which is used internationally to classify rock masses and assess permanent rock support in tunnels and caverns. Since its introduction in 1974, the Q-method has been updated several times. This empirical method is based on data from existing tunnels around the world. Our expertise also includes numerical modelling and recommendation of stabilizing measures. NGI has a world-class geo-laboratory, with experienced personnel.

Buckle up as we go for a ride inside the earth and take a look at what can be achieved when we look down long enough for the Earth to get our attention and whisper her secrets.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

A laboratory 4,850 feet underground in the Homestake gold mine in Lead, South Dakota, helped start a revolution in physics.

Dr. Ray Davis installed a neutrino detector in Homestake in 1965. Neutrinos are subatomic particles produced by fusion in stars, and over the course of three decades, the Davis experiment led to the discovery that the neutrinos produced in our sun change type, or "flavor," on their way to earth. The change in flavor meant neutrinos had to have at least a wisp of mass -- a wisp that required a significant change in the Standard Model of how the universe works.

Depth is Homestake's crucial asset. A thick layer of the earth's crust can stop most cosmic radiation. Ultra-sensitive detectors in deep, quiet labs, where they are protected from surface noise, can probe the universe's best-kept secrets. Experiments planned for the new Homestake lab include bigger, more sophisticated neutrino detectors. Other detectors will look for even more elusive phenomena such as dark matter, proton decay and neutrinoless double-beta decay....Today the deepest, largest underground laboratories are in Japan, Canada and Italy, but those labs have waiting lists for experiments. A deep lab at Homestake could more than double the world’s inventory of underground lab space.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=217575Title: Industrially useful microorganisms isolated from deep underground science and engineering laboratory (DUSEL) mine biofilms Publication Date: November 4, 2007...The Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) mine provides one of the most promising sources for microorganisms to date. These microorganisms have systematically evolved from organisms introduced from the surface to deep below ground level by humans and animals during mining and through water run off into the mine.

The microorganisms in this deep mine have been subjected to temperatures in excess of 100ºC, little external radiation, and in many cases have used lignocellulosic material as a food substrate. The wood in these mines is covered with biofilms that have evolved to survive the harsh environment. It is the objective of this team at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T), South Dakota State University, and United States Department of Agriculture, National Center For Agricultural Utilization Research, Agricultural Research Service to isolate and characterize anaerobic and aerobic bacteria and fungi that are capable of utilizing the lignocellulose at high temperature to produce biofuels and valuable chemical feedstock for use in industrial applications and to foster this new bioindustrial infrastructure with profitable co-products for chemical feedstocks, animal feed, and better production of starch and cellulosic biofuels.

The microorganisms will be screened in high-throughput for growth on cellulose and hemicellulose. They will be examined using automated integrated robotic paradigms for combinations that give optimum growth on recalcitrant lignocellulosic substrates and for maximum ethanol production. ...New strains will be engineered in high-throughput via mass transformation of full length gene libraries to introduce these new DUSEL gene sets into traditional ethanologenic microorganisms for improved cellulases and hemicellulases as well as new genes for metabolic corrections to allow utilization of pentose as well as hexose sugars in fermentation processes.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

The United States Army maintains and operates a unique research facility near Fairbanks, Alaska, known as the CRREL Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility. CRREL is an acronym for the U.S. Army's Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center.

The Permafrost Tunnel was excavated from 1963–1969 for the study of permafrost, geology, ice science, and the mining and construction techniques specific to permafrost environments. The story of the tunnel excavation is found in the Excavation Methods page of this Web site. Fascinating features of the tunnel are described in the Soil and Rock and Paleontology sections, and are shown during the Virtual Tunnel Tour. The Permafrost Tunnel offers a unique research platform for scientists and engineers who wish to study a frozen environment over 40,000 years old.

Researchers at the CRREL Alaska Research Office Fairbanks, Alaska, maintain and manage the Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility and offer support for scientific research projects.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Top 10 Fascinating Underground LaboratoriesBuckle up as we go for a ride inside the earth and take a look at what can be achieved when we look down long enough for the Earth to get our attention and whisper her secrets.

9 DUSEL - Lead South Dakota - The Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) is a futuristic underground project that is on the table and the National Science Foundation is very excited by the prospect.

8 Aquarius Reef base - Florida Keys Florida

7 Kola Super Deep Borehole Kola Russia

6 Svalbard Seed Bank - Spitsbergan Island Norway

5 Lake Vostok - Vostok Station Antartica

4 Super Kamiokande - Hida Japan - 3,281 feet (1100m) below ground Laboratory. It is directly under Mount Kamiokako, (kah-me-oh-cake-oh) near the Japanese city of Hida

3 Gran Sasso - Gran Sasso Mountains Italy - Gran Sasso National Laboratory has huge underground facilities, so huge that they are in fact the biggest underground laboratory in the World.

2 IceCube Nutrino Observatory - Antartica - The IceCube project uses the natural ice of the South Pole instead of water. A string of 70 (and later 86) holes are drilled into the ice one and one half miles deep.

1 Cern - Geneva Switzerland - CERN is the European Council for Nuclear Research. (The letters make sense when said in French) located 110 meters below ground in Northwest Geneva. They have built a particle accelerator and have succeeded in crashing two protons together at 99.99% of the speed of light. The CERN organization is the largest gathering of scientists on the planet incorporating the efforts of over 7,900 of them from 580 universities and over 80 nationalities.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Tono Geoscience Center (TGC), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been carrying out a wide range of geoscientific research in order to build a firm scientific and technological basis for geological disposal.

One of the major components of the ongoing geoscientific research program is the Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory (MIU) Project in the Tono area, central Japan. Two 1,000m deep shafts and several drifts will be excavated for geoscientific research and applicability of engineering techniques will be estimated.

JAEA has been carrying out geoscientific research at two locations: the location for investigation of crystalline rock is in Mizunami City, Gifu Prefecture; the location for investigation of sedimentary rock is at Horonobe, Hokkaido.

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Boulby Underground Laboratory: the UK's deep underground science facility, located 1100m below ground in Boulby Mine on the North East coast of England. Boulby is the home to the ZEPLIN-III and DRIFT-II Dark Matter search projects and various other 'low background', geoscience and environmental science studies.

There is a huge network of roadways and caverns underground at Boulby with over 1000kms of tunnel having been excavated since beginning of mining operations in 1968. The salt and potash seams are left over from the evaporation of an ancient sea (the Zechstein Sea) over 200m years ago. The main roadways and long-lasting caverns are cut into the rock-salt layer. Within the salt caverns UK scientists and engineers have built a series of laboratories. With over 1100m of rock overhead reducing cosmic rays by a factor 1 million - and with the surrounding rock salt being low in natural background radioactivity - the laboratories make an ideal site for ultra-low background and deep underground science projects.

Boulby is a village in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It is located just off the A174 near Easington, and 1 mile west of Staithes....To the north-west of the village is Boulby Quarries a Site of Special Scientific Interest designated due to its geological interest.

Boulby is also home to Cleveland Potash at Boulby mine - Europe's second-deepest mine, where potash and rock salt is mined 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) underground.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

In Europe, Finland is developing an underground characterisation facility at Olkiluoto, known as the ONKALO, which has now reached a depth of about 320m. If ONKALO confirms that the site meets all the safety case criteria for the development of a repository, a facility will be developed at the site with a planned commencement of disposal operations around 2020.

One element of the site investigations conducted at Olkiluoto is the excavation of the underground rock characterisation facility (ONKALO) that will be extended to the final disposal depth (approximately -400m).

ONKALO aids in collecting the further data needed for the application for the construction licence that will be submitted in 2012. The bedrock is studied with methods from geology, hydrology and geochemistry.

In addition to facilitating bedrock research, ONKALO also provides an opportunity to develop excavation techniques and final disposal techniques in realistic conditions. Later, the ONKALO facilities can be put into use when building and using the repository.

Posiva started to construct ONKALO in 2004. Research has been conducted there since the beginning of its construction.

ONKALO consists of one access tunnel and three shafts: a personnel shaft and two ventilation shafts. The slope of the tunnel is 1:10. It is 5.5 m wide and 6.3 m high

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

China's first deep underground laboratory was formally put into service in Jinpin hydropower station in Sichuan Province on Dec. 12, which means China now possesses an independent cutting-edge underground scientific research and experimental platform in physics.

Cheng Jianping, director of the project, said the lab is currently the deepest underground lab in the world with vertical rock coverage of 2,400 meters.

Experts from the project said the deep underground laboratory is of great importance for research of major leading basic research topics, including dark matter, particle physics, nuclear physics, neutrino physics, astrophysics and cosmology, and is a sound environment for research of rock mechanics, earth structure, ecology, low-level radioactive materials and nuclear radiation detection for environmental protection.

Experts from the China Institute of Atomic Energy, Tsinghua University, Sichuan University and the Ertan Hydropower Development Company formed a cooperation group to conduct dark matter detection experiments using a germanium detector made by germanium crystal material with the highest purity in the world. The lab’s first research on dark matter is expected to be completed in 2011.

the Jinping Underground Laboratory is situated some 2.4 km underneath the Jinping Mountain in Sichuan province.

...As the lab is underneath several kilometres of marble and sandstone, spurious signals from cosmic rays are blocked, making it an ideal surrounding in which to search for dark matter – the mysterious substance that accounts for about 80% of the matter in the universe. The Jinping lab will initially house two experiments in that quest. Already installed is the China Dark Matter Experiment, which is a collaboration of about 30 physicists led by Tsinghua University that will use a germanium detector.

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Starting in the Brezhnev period, Russia has been pursuing construction of a massive underground facility at Yamantau Mountain and the city of Mezhgorye (formerly the settlements of Beloretsk-15 and Beloretsk-16). The complex, reportedly being built by tens of thousands of workers, is said to cover an area of up to 400 square miles, the size of the Washington area inside the Beltway.

The exact location of this large facility is uncertain, and given its reported size it may span as much as an entire degree of latitude and longitude. It is apparently located near the the Zlatoust-36/Yuryuzan nuclear weapons production plant and the Yuryuzan national-level nuclear weapons storage facility. The Yaman-Tau Gory [mountains] range is centered at 52�25'N 56�45'E, while the peak of Yamantau Gora [mountain] is at 54�15'19"N 58�06'11"E. The town of Beloretsk is located at 53�58'N 58�24'E, though NIMA does not include a listing for Mezhgorye. This facility may be synonymous with "Alkino-2" since the town of Al'kino is nearby at 55�05'N 58�04'E. ...The New York Times quoted Russian officials describing the underground compound variously as a mining site, a repository for Russian treasures, a food storage area, and a bunker for Russia's leaders in case of nuclear war. "The (Russian) Defense Ministry declined to say whether Parliament has been informed about the details of the project, like its purpose and cost, saying only that it receives necessary military information," according to the New York Times.

Satellite photographs of Yamantau Mountain show continued digging at the "deep undergound complex" and new construction at each of the site's above-ground support areas. Judging from satellite photos and other intelligence, US officials are fairly confident that the Russians are building an underground command bunker and communications installation.

But "... the Russians are not very interested in having us go in there," a senior American official said in Washington. "It is being built on a huge scale and involves a major investment of resources. The investments are being made at a time when the Russians are complaining they do not have the resources to do things pertaining to arms control."

Today, Russia may be conducting nuclear deception on a far vaster scale beneath Yamantau Mountain, where it has dug out a gigantic underground military complex designed to withstand a sustained nuclear assault. A U.S. intelligence source was quoted as saying that the Yamantau complex is but one of some 200 secret deep underground nuclear war-fighting sites in Russia, many of which have been significantly upgraded over the past six years at a cost of billions of dollars....

In 1998, in a rare public comment, then-Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) Gen. Eugene Habinger, called Yamantau

"a very large complex -- we estimate that it has millions of square feet available for underground facilities. We don't have a clue as to what they're doing there."

It is believed to be large enough to house 60,000 persons, with a special air filtration system designed to withstand a nuclear, chemical or biological attack. Enough food and water is believed to be stored at the site to sustain the entire underground population for months on end.

Mount Yamantau (Russian: гора Ямантау) is in the Ural Mountains, Bashkortostan, Russia. The name means bad (evil) mountain in the Bashkir language (Яман тау). It is also known as Mount Yamantaw[citation needed]. It stands at 1,640 metres (5,381 ft) and is the highest mountain in the southern Urals. Along with Kosvinsky Mountain (600 km to the north), it is suspected by the United States of being a large secret nuclear facility and/or bunker.[1] The closed military town of Mezhgorye (Russian: Межгорье) is situated nearby. As late as 2003, Yamantaw was not yet fully operational.[1]

Large excavation projects have been observed by U.S. satellite imagery as recently as the late 1990s, during the time of Boris Yeltsin's government after the fall of the Soviet Union.[1] Two garrisons, Beloretsk-15 and Beloretsk-16, were built on top of the facility, and possibly a third, Alkino-2, as well, and became the closed town of Mezhgorye in 1995. They are said to house 30,000 workers each. Repeated U.S. questions have yielded several different responses from the Russian government regarding Mount Yamantaw.[2] They have said it is a mining site, a repository for Russian treasures, a food storage area, and a bunker for leaders in case of nuclear war...Russian newspapers reported in 1996 that it is a part of the "Dead Hand" nuclear retaliatory command structure.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

The 21st century exerts increasing demands to go underground. Expanding and developing populations put growing pressure on surface space, driving mass transit systems, hydroelectric plants, energy storage, waste disposal facilities and a host of other systems underground. The depletion of shallow mineral and energy resources sends prospectors ever deeper in search of essential raw materials and new sources of energy. Yet despite the demand for subsurface space and resources, major engineering obstacles to underground use remain.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

The SOCAL Offshore Complex also includes W-291 and Marine Corps Base (MCB) Camp Pendleton. The complex is located along the coast and in the waters adjacent to Southern California from Santa Barbara to Baja California.

Southern California Offshore Range (SCORE)Development History (1981-2007)The San Clemente Island Range Complex (SCIRC) is the cornerstone of the tactical training ranges for the Southern California Operations Area (SOCAL).

SOCAL supports the largest concentration of naval forces in the world. The SCIRC land, air, and sea ranges provide the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and other military services, space and facilities which they use to conduct readiness training, and test and evaluation activities....

THE SCORE MISSIONThe mission of SCORE is to improve the combat readiness of Pacific Fleet air, surface, and submarine units in all warfare areas providing instrumented operating areas and associated facilities to support training exercises. Ancillary missions include support for evaluations of equipment and/or tactical concepts developed to support Navy programs. Since its inception in 1985, the use of SCORE can be directly related to the U.S. Navy’s success in world conflicts, and the high state of readiness that the Department of Defense enjoys today.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

The Moles Association is the most important association of decision-makers and representatives of the US heavy construction industry on the country’s east coast. The former US President Herbert C. Hoover is also among those who have been honored with the Moles Award in the past

http://themoles.info/organization/They have been called “crazy men in a crazy industry” who gamble their fortunes and reputations against the challenges they meet. Often working underground, they change the face of the earth, building tunnels, dams, highways and bridges. They are defined as heavy construction workers.

In October 1936, a small group of these men who had worked together between 1914 and 1919 on projects under Newark Bay and on the waterfront of Port Newark had a reunion in Jersey City. They had such a wonderful time reminiscing about their experiences and discussing their work that they were inspired to form a permanent organization. On that autumn evening, what was to become the most prestigious heavy construction organization in the world was born....In 1950, the non member was former president Herbert Hoover, who was labeled the "Grand Old Mole" for his engineering expertise. At the same dinner, Dwight D. Eisenhower was the Principal Speaker and was presented with Honorary Membership. Recognizing the rising prominence of women in the heavy construction industry, the Moles initiated its first female member in 1992.

The tradition of presenting two awards each year to outstanding construction individuals has continued to this day at the Annual Awards Dinner held each year in New York City on the last Wednesday of January. The giants of the U.S. construction industry have been and continue to be honored. Such individuals as Stephen Bechtel, Harry W. Morrison, Peter Kiewit, Lou Perini and Guy F. Atkinson were among the earlier recipients. In 2011, Robert E. Alger of The Lane Construction Corporation and Peter O. Shea of J.F. Shea Co., Inc. were the honorees.

The tradition of having a Principal Speaker has also continued. The Honorable Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City was the 2011 Speaker. Earlier speakers included Richard M. Nixon, House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill, New York City Mayor Edward Koch and New York State Governor Mario M. Cuomo.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

It's interesting that six months ago I could hardly find anything and now I look and it's all out there. Just amazing.It's obvious to me that these TBM manufacturers have been boring underground privately for governments for years and now they are more public commercially. Also notice that these machines are dependent on Tungsten and the company that dominates Tungsten is owned by the Israelis and Warren Buffet.

Another good article:

http://pediaview.com/openpedia/Tunnel_boring_machine...The largest diameter TBM, at 19.25 m, built by Herrenknecht AG for a recent project in Orlovski Tunnel, St.Petersburg. The machine was built to bore through soft ground including sand and clay. The largest diameter hard rock TBM, at 14.4 m, was manufactured by The Robbins Company for Canada's Niagara Tunnel Project. The machine was used to bore a hydroelectric tunnel beneath Niagara Falls, the machine has been named "Big Becky" in reference to the Sir Adam Beck hydroelectric dams to which it is tunnelling to provide an additional hydroelectric tunnel.

Berkshire Hathaway's Charles Munger, Eitan Wertheimer, Warren Buffet, Stef Wertheimer [ out of picture ] ...Lloyd: Israel Carbide, ISCAR; the company has been synonymous with Israel for its whole history. You were born four years after Israel was born. The company grew parallel to the state. What does selling out to Warren Buffet in 2006 mean in terms of Israel, or was it purely a business decision on your part?Eitan: It wasn’t selling out. It was a basic idea of becoming part of something bigger, and happily that opportunity opened up. We wanted to secure our customers and our people for yet again another 50 years or more.

Founded Iscar, one of the world's largest (by sales) manufacturers of carbide industrial-cutting tools, which are used by carmakers like GM and Ford. Son Eitan, who along with his wife owns Israel's largest horse-breeding stud farm, is Iscar's president. Stef Wertheimer also seeds high-tech Israeli startups through four industrial parks

In 2002 he testified before Congress about his idea for a "new Marshall Plan" that advocates U.S. funding to revitalize the Middle East, a plan he still champions in speeches across the world.

From one billionaire to another. In May 2006 Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway paid $4 billion for 80% of Iscar, the manufacturer of precision carbide metalworking tools founded by Stef Wertheimer in 1952. His son Eitan has continued to run the company with Buffett's support. Stef lobbies on behalf of his "Marshall Plan for the Middle East," based on the idea that industrial parks like one he has in the Galilee can bring peaceful coexistence by having Jews and Arabs work together. Also invested in a handful of other Israeli businesses, including Blades Technology, a maker of jet-engine blades.

Berkshire Hathaway's Charles Munger,[http://www.charlesmunger.com/Charles Thomas Munger is often considered Warren Buffet's partner since he is the Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation, but he was an investor in his own right before joining Berkshire. ...Charles T. Munger’s political views are different from Warren Buffet’s too. Buffet leans towards the left and contributed money to Barack Obamba’s campaign. Munger is a Republican

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_MungerMunger is also the chairman of Wesco Financial Corporation, based in Pasadena, California ... now controls Precision Steel Corp., CORT Furniture Leasing, Kansas Bankers Surety Company, and other ventures. Wesco Financial has an equity portfolio of over $1.5 billion dollars that is concentrated in Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods, US Bancorp, and Goldman Sachs.

http://www.daylife.com/photo/0bxLeZfdtKd8cBerkshire Hathaway Inc's Warren Buffett (R) visits a factory of TaeguTec in Daegu, about 300 km (189 miles) southeast of Seoul October 25, 2007. Buffett visited South Korea for the first time on Thursday to tour unlisted TaeguTec.

Warren Buffett’s tool-making unit Iscar Metalworking Cos. said sales may decline in Japan after the company evacuated most of the 1,400 employees from its local headquarters as radiation leaks from a nuclear plant. ...Wertheimer and Buffett canceled a visit to the Tungaloy operations, where buildings and machinery were damaged in the magnitude-9 temblor, and extended their stay in South Korea until March 22. ...Buffett, 80, will travel to Seoul later today to meet South Korean President Lee Myung Bak after a ground-breaking ceremony for a new TaeguTec factory in Daegu. He will fly to India on March 22, said Wertheimer, who describes himself as Buffett’s “travel agent.”

It is Korea’s largest manufacturer of tungsten cutting tools and hard metal tools with the only integrated tungsten production plant in the world...In May 2006, Berkshire Hathaway, chaired by Warren Buffett, purchased an 80% stake in TaeguTec’s holding company, the IMC Group of Israel, for US$5 billion

Early on, Stef Wertheimer, the founder of Iscar Metalworking, a manufacturer of industrial precision metal-cutting tools, ...In May, 2006, Wertheimer and Iscar made global headlines when Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK) Warren Buffett announced he had acquired an 80% stake in Iscar for $4 billion (see BusinessWeek.com, 05/08/06). When Buffett traveled to the country to visit his new investment (see BusinessWeek.com, 09/18/06) four months later he told the Israeli press: "Iscar and the Tefen Industrial Park should be taken as an example…around the world of what can be done against all odds." ...Investing in a VisionSays David Rubin, the former Israeli Economic Minister to North America and currently a consultant to Israeli high tech companies: "[Stef]'s industrial parks are probably the largest private contribution to Israeli entrepreneurship ever

http://www.imd.org/about/pressroom/pressreleases/Warren-Buffett-and-Eitan-Wertheimer-celebrate-20-years-of-family-business-research-and-education-at-IMD.cfmMay 20, 2008 - Lausanne, Switzerland Text Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and Eitan Wertheimer, Chairman of the Board of Iscar, took part in a full day of activities on IMD’s campus in Lausanne, Switzerland to celebrate 20 years of family business research and education at IMD....About IscarIscar is a producer of unique and innovative cutting tools for metalworking, including turning, grooving, milling, hole making, boring and threading tools. In the past 56 years it has expanded from a single marketing and manufacturing facility in Israel to a multinational company with representation in over 50 countries.

BACKGROUNDMr. David J. Rubin is the founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Tech Capital Ltd., a company devoted to developing and supporting Israel - US investment activities.

He is also Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer at TIX Group. From October 1998 through August 1999, Mr. Rubin was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Aura Investments Ltd., an investment company focusing on high-tech start-ups which is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange ... (TASE). Mr. Rubin was the Israeli Economic Minister to North America, operating out of New York and heading the Government of Israel's nine economic offices in the U.S.A. and Canada.

“Israel has amazing people. We are investing $4 billion in an amazing group of people from Israel – and we are investing it at an astounding speed,” he said at the time.. .... The purchase of an 80 per cent stake in Iscar Metalworking Cos. is the largest investment that Buffett has ever made outside the US....Israel is the second-largest participant on the NASDAQ stock market after the US. “And this is not per capita,” he hastened to add....The CICC relaunched in May 2006 after a seven-year hiatus. Currently seeking to grow its membership, its goal, according to the organization’s president, David Rubin of Gowlings law firm, is “to promote beneficial opportunities between Canada and Israel.”

http://www.2space.net/news/article/344262-1300678804/Warren Buffett (C) poses with employees of TaeguTec in Daegu, ...Mar 21st, 2011(Reuters) - Warren Buffett (C) poses with employees of TaeguTec in Daegu, about 300 km (189 miles) southeast of Seoul, March 21, 2011. The world’s third-richest man who is worth $50 billion, according to the Forbes’ 2011 ranking

Mar 21st, 2011(Reuters) - Warren Buffett (C) gestures after missing his footing on the stairs as he visits a factory of TaeguTec before attending a ground-breaking ceremony for the factory, run by a unit of an Israeli firm owned by his Berkshire Hathaway Inc, in Daegu, about 300 km (189 miles) southeast of Seoul, March 21, 2011.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

I hear them keep bringing it up on Coast-to-Coast AM but I wish there were some astronomers with some credible proof.

Last I heard they have an observatory in Antarctica monitoring Nibiru's apporoach but nothing saying that it'll pass with no harm, some gravitational sheering on the Earth or complete upheaval of life on Earth as we know it.

Just think how fast the manufacturing jobs would return if Nibiru did devastate the Earth ?

LONDON December 7 news: According to "Pakistan Observer" reported on December 5, from Pakistan in response to the potential threat of war with China, India has begun the construction of large urban centers and military nuclear bunker. Under this military plan, India will build hundreds of underground large nuclear bunker, Pakistan and China to prevent the possible implementation of the "nuclear strike."

It is reported that India's nuclear bunker in the capital, Mumbai, Chennai, the fourth largest city, as well as the implementation of Kolkata city built along the subway lines. Some large bunker can accommodate a variety of essential facilities, including command and control centers, hospitals and training centers.

In the event of war, each of a large bunker can accommodate up to 8,000 individuals; special shelter will be designed to suffer a nuclear attack, including the President and the Prime Minister specifically for the Indian government at all levels, including executives are using.

recently, popular among the Indian army, a new war doctrine, may also face competition from India said Pakistan and China, two-sided fight; while India has also been working to enhance its military capabilities. India's domestic nuclear-powered submarine "destroy the enemy who" was the beginning of deterrence will cruise in 2 years to complete the Indian land-based, space-based and strategic weapons delivery underwater Trinity System. Wilma said the Indian Navy chief Admiral, with land-based, space-based and underwater delivery of strategic nuclear missiles, India really has a trinity of nuclear power. He said: "We specifically undertake not to use nuclear weapons first, but we have a 'destroy the enemy who' number; that the trinity of our system has been established, we must use it as efficiently as possible

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Israel’s leaders hole up in nuclear bunkerPosted on Pakalert on June 23, 2011

Israeli leaders holed up in a new underground nuclear bunker on Wednesday as part of annual nationwide maneuvers to prepare for a possible missile war with Iran, Syria and their Lebanese and Palestinian guerrilla allies.

Officials said it was the first time that the security cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had tested the bunker, dug deep in the western Jerusalem foothills over the past decade and dubbed the “Nation’s Tunnel” by local media.

Israel has held increasingly sweeping civil defense drills since the 2006 Lebanon war, during which Hezbollah guerrillas fired thousands of short-range rockets at its northern towns.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Inside a rural bungalow nestling in the Essex countryside lies the twilight world of the Government Cold War. Behind the blast screens that protect this bungalow is the entrance to an amazing labyrinth of rooms built into a hillside, encased in 10 feet thick reinforced concrete 75 feet underground.

The Secret Nuclear Bunker at Kelvedon Hatch, in Essex, England, is a large underground bunker used during the cold war as a Regional Government Headquarters. Since being decommissioned in 1992, the bunker has been open to the public as a tourist attraction (known as the Secret Nuclear Bunker), with a museum focusing on its cold war history.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

During the convulsions that upended Yugoslavia in the 1990s, a secret came to light near the Bosnian town of Konjic. There — it turned out — the dictator Josip Broz Tito had constructed a labyrinthine bunker complex 900 feet below ground to protect him and his inner circle in the event of a nuclear attack. Today, it seems as remote as Yugoslavia itself.

A camouflaged entrance to the bunker, outside the town of Konjic

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

A Cold War nuclear bunker in Scotland has been put on the property market by its owners, Comrie Development Trust (CDT).

The nuclear bunker is located beneath the rolling Scottish hills of the former Cultybraggan Camp, over a mile south of the town of Comrie and within fifty miles of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The former military installation was built in 1939 and played host to some of the most notorious Nazi prisoners of war during the Second World War.

Originally commissioned by the Scottish Parliament, the huge underground bunker housed over one hundred and fifty staff who worked to protect England and Scotland from nuclear, biological and electromagnetic attacks.

It was the most technologically advanced bunker built during the Cold War, complete with a BBC studio, a canteen, a telephone exchange and dormitories.

Construction cost in the region of US$48.2 million, which would be around US$144.4 million in today’s money, allowing for inflation....

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Deep inside the Swiss Alps, a former nuclear bunker is now the ultimate hiding place for the world’s most sensitive secrets. Wired gains access to the server farm designed to survive a full-scale military attack....“Sixteen years ago, nobody took us seriously,” Oschwald says. “They said to us, ‘Storing data under a mountain? Why?’” In the cheerier geopolitical climate of the 90s, it was decidedly easier to scoff at the eccentric Swiss entrepreneur, with his slicked-back hair and blinding white smile, as he extolled the data-security benefits of his decommissioned bunker. But today — with terrorism, environmental disasters and financial meltdown on the global agenda — some of the biggest players in technology and finance are buying into the facility’s promise. Oschwald can tick off blue-chip companies such as Cisco Systems, Novartis, UBS and Deutsche Bank among his clients.

The guards stroll over to greet their boss, who is 6’ 2’’ and wears a black raincoat and a dark-blue Italian suit. As he prepares to escort Wired inside, he explains how nearly two decades of work and an investment of more than 40 million Swiss francs (£25 million) transformed a decaying bunker into a fortified data repository. Swiss Fort Knox has a laundry list of features straight out of a film script. There are five security zones, a dedicated power supply, a cooling system that pumps glacier water from an underground lake, military-grade air filters that siphon atomic, biological and chemical impurities from the air, an emergency hotel, several months’ food, a conference room, and security, including face-recognition surveillance software, bulletproof plastics and vault doors courtesy of the Swiss banking industry. It is also, thanks to its original use, designed to be impervious to nuclear attack.

“We had a four-star US general who was partly responsible for the atomic-weapons programme come here,” Oschwald says as the guards look on, “and he said, ‘In America, we have a lot of space and a lot of soldiers. But I have visited a lot of sites and this is something… very special.’” As Oschwald speaks, a Subaru pulls up and a stocky man in sunglasses exits the car carrying a light-blue lockbox. He says a few words to one of the guards, hands over the goods and speeds away. Oschwald seems unfazed by the spectacle. He’s accustomed to nervy clients who still prefer physical data transfer to the virtual.

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Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5